Alone
by macannettemavie
Summary: This story is a tragic one about a night that changed Elisa and Goliath's life forever.
1. Prologue: A Night Visit

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters herein.  
  
A heavily cloaked figure swept silently down the dirtier alleys, while the Manhattan skyline glared threateningly in the background. She turned, checking behind her to make sure she hadn't been followed.  
  
Elisa's cloak swayed in the wind around her feet, as a hazy rain started overhead, shading the city a deeper, more depressing gray than it usually was. Her long black hair, tinted now with strands of gray, was trying to fight its way out of her cloak in the steadily increasing wind that now whipped through the alleyways, creating a low, desperate moan that reflected the feelings of those who now traversed these dark paths. Elisa herself felt this same hopelessness. Things weren't like they used to be, when she was young, when her body was lithe and strong. Somewhere beneath the defeated face and the slightly crippled body was the young, lithe, lively, and independent woman that Goliath had loved. But impotent love wears down those who feel it, and it had certainly contributed to the current state of Elisa - even Goliath, who she was now on her way to visit.  
  
She came to her destination, slowly, favoring her right leg heavily. She cracked the metal door and entered, slamming the door quickly behind her. She knew Goliath hated the light, even the grey light of the city that still poorly needed his protection. He blamed himself for it all, and this was his self-imposed punishment. He lived below ground now, in a hole, instead of in the open air where gargoyles belong. He refused to look upon light, or beauty of any king. But the worst punishment of all - he refused to protect the Manhattan that he had come to love. In this he had renounced everything he once believed in - everything he once was.  
  
It pained Elisa to see him this way. She had once loved him as he loved her - powerlessly. Now he was a pitiful sight. He was not old, as gargoyles age much slower than humans, but age showed on him much more deeply than it did on Elisa. His face was drawn in, pronouncing his cheek bones and turning their once proud, hard lines into deep gashes of painful remembrance. His clothing was long ignored, unkempt and slowly rotting away. His wings, shriveled from lack of use, now stood out behind him more like cancerous growths than the powerful wings of the avenging night. But the most painful thing for Elisa to look upon was his eyes. Oh, how she had once gazed into those fiery, passionate eyes! She had seen his soul look out upon her from behind those deep, dark eyes. Now all that showed in them was a heavy gray mask, lifeless and limp.  
  
As frightful as it was for her, however, she met his eyes. For an instant she felt that old flame light up inside her, but it was quickly quelled by the cold facing it, both within and without. She doubted that he felt any such remaining spark. He barely seemed to recognize her these days.  
  
"Goliath," she said quietly, reaching her hand out towards him. He recoiled further into the corner.  
  
"Why have you come here?" he asked sadly.  
  
"I."she started. Why had she come here? She used to visit him often when he had first come to live here, but now she only came once a year, always on this same day.  
  
"I thought that maybe today, of all days, you might need.someone." she said, tears welling up in her eyes.  
  
Goliath seemed to sink further into the floor as he buried his face in his hands, bringing his wings up around him to protect Elisa from the sight of his pitiful weeping.  
  
"Why have you come here?" Goliath sobbed. Elisa heard the danger in his voice, as the last syllable turned up in anger. "All I need," he growled, "is to forget. So why do you return here, always on this day? Is it your aim to make forgetting impossible for me? Is it your intention that I should, every year on this day, be reminded of the events which I have tried to forget so hard? Do you think coming here will help me to be less alone? No, your coming here only reminds me of just how alone I am." He was standing now, tears streaming mercilessly down his face. Elisa was also weeping freely, crying for her friend, her love. "Go now, and please," Goliath began, barely able to compose himself, "if anything remains of the love you once felt for me, you will never come here again." 


	2. Memories

Disclaimer: All of the characters herein are the sole property of not me. The storyline, however, is original.  
  
Elisa returned to her apartment, slowly, each step agonizing in the new humidity of the night. The rain made her leg ache terribly, but she was not concentrating on her leg. She was crying silently, stone-faced, all the way back to her apartment. She had sat outside Goliath's hovel until the dawn, when his weeping suddenly ceased as the sun broke between the skyscrapers of the desperate city, spilling its rays into the dark places. This dawn brought no hope, however. It gave the city a garish light that was like a pallid façade trying to disguise a rotting corpse.  
  
When she opened the door to her apartment, she was forced to look again at what things had come to. Her apartment had once been a cozy getaway in a nice building - a great place for a police woman to lay her head. Now the building was dilapidated, crumbling around Elisa's weary ears. She was startled by the sight of a single red rose, sitting almost defiantly on her desk. It was in stark contrast to the room around it, bright and beautiful. Matt must have delivered it in the night, while she was visiting Goliath.  
  
There came a sharp knock at the door. Elisa opened, and in hobbled Dominique Destine. It seemed that Puck had played one final trick on Demona. While her gargoyle form was immortal thanks to the weird sisters, her human form aged just as quickly as Elisa's had. One day soon morning would come and her human form would die, taking her gargoyle self with it.  
  
"I thought you'd come," said Elisa, quietly.  
  
"Where else am I to go?" began Demona. "Now, more than ever before, I know the meaning of the word alone."  
  
Elisa looked down at Dominique, as her form buckled under the pressure of her wracking sobs. Her red hair had faded to a stringy grey and her flesh hung loosely about her. It was hard for Elisa not to feel sympathy for this poor woman. In their communications over the past twenty years, she had learned the full story of Demona's life - all of the sacrifice, the pain, the loss, the suffering. Hers was a tragic life, and for this Elisa pitied her.  
  
Twenty years ago, however, Demona had finally learned that her vengeance had only cost her more. It was in this moment, however, that she also lost everything she loved.  
  
"Elisa.I.my daughter." Demona reached to the desk to support herself in order to stand up. She felt the rose on the desk as she pushed herself upwards. She looked down at it, fascinated. She picked it up and turned it around in her hand, examining it with tears in her eyes. "So beautiful a thing, and so fragile." she whispered.  
  
"Would you like to have a seat?" Elisa offered.  
  
"Yes. I need to rest." Elisa noticed that Demona was breathing heavily, and her response came in gasps.  
  
"Did you bring it?" Elisa asked of her friend, as she took a seat.  
  
Demona sat heavily in a chair by the window and looked out at the morning. A distant look came over her, and Elisa knew that she was going over the events of that night twenty years ago, wondering what she could have done differently. Elisa herself did this often enough to know the look.  
  
"Yes. I have it here." Demona said sadly. From her heavy clothing she pulled a large object, wrapped in torn fabric and handed it across to Elisa.  
  
She reached out her hand, and as soon as she accepted it she felt the heaviness of the package, and the sadness of the bittersweet gift within. Slowly, she unwrapped the ragged cloth and stared grimly at the cover of the grimorum acanorum. This would never have been necessary, if only things had been different. If only. 


	3. Intrigue Upon Intrigue

Note: Please go back and reread chapter two. There was an important addition to the story there. Please note also that this chapter is a flashback. The story of the tragic night will be told from this point, then I will return to the frame part of the story with the old and broken characters. So from here to the last chapter, it's all a continuing flashback.  
  
Disclaimer: As I'm sure you've all figured out, I am not the Disney Channel, hence I don't own any of the characters.  
  
"I love you, Elisa." Goliath said sadly.  
  
"I know. But Goliath.." She began, as morning's first light reached them and her friend turned to stone. "Well, that's one way to end a conversation." Elisa murmured to herself, for probably the fifth time in a month. Goliath was stone all day, and usually busy with protecting the city for most of the night, so their time to talk among just the two of them was severely limited.  
  
______________________________  
  
Across the city, Demona cried out in pain as she transformed into Dominique Destine. "Curse that filthy little trickster!" Demona cried, as pain wracked her body.  
  
"You called?" rang a familiar, mocking voice.  
  
Demona released a final scream then stood up to face Puck, now fully human. A small, sardonic smile curled her lip viciously upward, then faded quickly. "I'm afraid you'll find me unreceptive to your games and trickery. I've learned my lesson about dealing with you."  
  
"Why, whatever could you mean, my dear Demona? What have I ever done to you?" he cooed, looking innocent in face and flipping upside down in midair.  
  
"I'm curious as to what you're doing here, though. I thought you could only appear as your true self and use your powers when training young Alex. I'd be interested to know what loophole you've found to allow you this little excursion to visit me, one of your oldest friends." That same vicious smile returned for a brief instant.  
  
"Why, I would never disobey my Lord Oberon. Young Alex is in training this very instant." Puck opened a small, magical window in the air next to him. In this picture, a child barely three years old was maintaining the magical bonds holding a strong Scottish man who fought tirelessly to break free from the child, who seemed merely amused.  
  
"Macbeth!" snarled Demona. Her fists clenched and unclenched, as she fumed restlessly at the sight of her greatest enemy. The window disappeared as quickly as it had come.  
  
"I'm merely here to collect phase two of Alex's lesson." Puck smiled suggestively at Demona.  
  
"I see. You are bound by your creation only to make deals and then find ways out of them. You used Alex to trap and hold Macbeth. You obviously have need of me, too, but for what I haven't yet deduced. My only question is this: why me and Macbeth? Since when have you taken interest in the petty quarrels of mortals?"  
  
"Then I presume no one has informed you that the spell of the weird sisters has now made both of you immortal?" There was something ironic in his voice when he said this, which discomfited Demona. She dismissed it quickly, however.  
  
"I'm well aware of the effects of their magic. Don't avoid my question. In fact, let's make a deal." Her smile returned again, but she relished its presence this time. She noticed Puck squirming slightly under the prospect of someone else setting the terms of a deal.  
  
His doubt disappeared quickly, though. "Fine. What's your bargain?"  
  
"You will tell me honestly, exactly, and without holding any information back why you are now concerning yourself with me and Macbeth, and why you have now come to me. If you do this, I will hear your proposition."  
  
Puck looked uncomfortable at this, but finally he lowered his head slightly, and uttered a grudging "Agreed." His usual chipper air returned fast however, as he began to tell Demona what he had on his mind.  
  
"As you know, my current master's father, David Xanatos has decided that he and the gargoyles are friends. They have now returned to live in the castle and everyone is happy again."  
  
"Except you." finished Demona.  
  
"Precisely. As you so clearly stated a few moments ago, you know my nature. There are few things that sicken me more than contentment and happy endings. There is one thing that is definitely worse, however, and that's love."  
  
A new window appeared and through it Demona watched Elisa and Goliath exchange meaningful glances, embrace, smile at each other, and even kiss once.  
  
"You mean to anger me, to cloud my judgment with these images of my former love now in love with another. I should tell you then, my love for him died long ago."  
  
"Of course it did, my dear. All of this is practically inconsequential, though. Here is the crux of the matter: My Lord Oberon has taken it into his head that he is not content with the deal he made with Fox and Xanatos. He wants the child, so that he may train him himself. But Lord Oberon, as I'm sure you know, has no mind for subtle trickery. He needs my help to weasel his way out of this deal. I don't want to help him, however. I have grown fond of Alex and my position as Mr. Xanatos's loyal Owen. My plan is thus: I gave Oberon a plan to free himself from the deal so that he might take Alex. This plan, however, will give me ample opportunity to show him that my training of Alex is complete and that he may stay with me and his parents. That's where you come in, for surely Lord Oberon will find Alex's training complete if he can manage to destroy Goliath, whom Oberon is not very fond of. But I cannot kill, neither can Alex, and Goliath is too cynical to ever deal with me, so tricking him is out of the question. I need you to destroy Goliath for me, but in such a way that Alex gets the credit for it."  
  
"Intrigue upon intrigue, hmm. I must admit that my interest is piqued. What's your plan?" Demona encouraged.  
  
"Oh, no no no, my dear Demona. Our deal was that I tell you why I needed you. I have no intention, and also no obligation to tell you my plan. All you need to know is that I'm offering you a chance at revenge on Goliath, Elisa, and Macbeth. They're all lined up just waiting for you to rid yourself of their headache. What do you say, my dear?"  
  
Her human face had grown red at being tricked once again by this most annoying creature. She could not, however, pass up this opportunity for vengeance against all those whom she desired it. "I will help you." 


End file.
